Professional install gone bad. Need advice!

[joseywales]

OK. you might have seen my other post. We had a company complete the excavation and installation of our 18' AG. I reminded them, as they worked, that the the gap between the beam and the pool wall seam looked excessive - the skimmer was sagging as well. I could lay my hand flat on the wall and slide my fingers completely in between the bea, and wall. they kept telling me it would close when the pool was full. When full, the gap did close, but the skimmer has a slight cant to it and I can still fit my pinky, up the first knuckel, between the beam and the wall.

What's worse, is that there are many wrinkles on the bottom of the pool. I can see the dirt, left on the ladder, collecting at each of the wrinkles. He kept saying, as long as the wrinkles go down and not up, we can fix it. what they don't do is stay, while the pool fills, and continually work out the wrinkles (at least not past a foot or so of water). I'm afraid to vacuum it, for fear of tearing the liner.

With 7,600 gallons now in, and BBB chemicals (great site - love the bleach!:

1 - how much water has to come out to repair the wrinkles pm the bottom of the pool?

2 - How much stretching can a liner taking, before it becomes too stressed (shortening the life of the liner?)?

3 - Given that there is bleach in the water (which would probably kill what's left of my grass), and the fact that our basement wall will not with stand the hydrostatic pressure that heavy rains bring, should I insist they pump out into a truck and refill from the truck? As opposed to pumping water on to the lawn. What does using a truck do the quality of the refill water? right now, all is good with the chemical - thought TFP test kit is on its way

They're coming back Tuesday, and I'd like to dictate the plan of action.

thanks for your help

 

[rastoma]

3 - Given that there is bleach in the water (which would probably kill what's left of my grass), and the fact that our basement wall will not with stand the hydrostatic pressure that heavy rains bring, should I insist they pump out into a truck and refill from the truck? As opposed to pumping water on to the lawn. What does using a truck do the quality of the refill water? right now, all is good with the chemical - thought TFP test kit is on its way

I can't answer all the questions, but a few things I'm pretty sure about....

you don't have bleach in your pool at this point. You have chlorine. And it will not kill the grass, at least it doesn't kill mine when I backwash my filter.

They can probably get rid of the wrinkles without draining any water but if it will make it easier and quicker to do so, take a garden hose and drain it away from the house.

I really don't think they are going to spend the money on a water truck/tank to hold the water and then refill. It's a whole lot cheaper to drain and refill. 14k gallons cost me $90. I can't imagine it costing much more elsewhere. But you'll only be losing... I'm guess 4k or so if they have to half way drain it?

All in all, I don't think it's going to be a big deal or cost.

The main thing I'm concerned with is the sagging skimmer.

And I don't quite understand what you're saying about hydrostatic pressure of heavy rains. If you're basement wall won't hold up against a heavy rain?!??

 

[joseywales]

Thanks for taking the time!!!

Did my wife put you up to this response She keeps saying it will all work out.

Ok. Everything you wrote makes sense, I just wanted to be sure (first pool an all). I almost wrote chlorine, but wanted to note that I do use bleach, so thanks.

I guess I'm mostly steamed that they didn't address the issues while it was filling.

The skimmer isn't really "sagging" now. it's slightly off-level (was much worse while the pool was filling, probably becasue it was so close to the beam gap. Or was it causing the beam gap??? Did they install the skimmer too soon??). But the gap at that beam is still as wide as my pinky. I'm mostly concerned about its effect over time.

Our underground basement (poured concrete) wall has a floor to ceiling hairline crack. Although we have a nice grade to remove water, we also get neighboring waters, so in heavy rains the hairline crack does seep and we use beach towels to absorb the water. They will get soaked. The basement doesn't flood or anything, but if that pool ever breaks at the seam, it's almost exactly where the crack is. We're looking to have the crack addressed, but I'm not certain what that will entail. I have patched it and that actually worked very well. While patching it, there were heavery rains and the wall was wet. I rubbed some of the patch off while smoothing it and it was like poking a water balloon with a pin. It just streamed right out.

Anyway, I just wanted to be certain that emptying half the poll would allow them to address hte wrinkles and perhaps the beam gap. Our is @ 7, 600 gallons and your figures are dead on. It would cost us, well them , $22 to fill half way.

If my friends and I installed this pool, as we did one just last month, I wouldn't be as upset. That was a replacement pool, so little excavation was needed. But we needed a fair amount of escavation at our house and 6-7 tons of stone delivered, so we opted to have our pool installed by pros. When I screw something up, I say, "well, I'm no plumber." But when I pay a plumber to do it, it'd better be right